It has now been six months since the Party of Hope was established by the founding members of the now defunct Party of Hope who did not join the Democratic Party for the People. Its representative, Shigefumi Matsuzawa, told reporters on Nov. 8: “We’re a small political party, so we don’t have enough opportunities to have our say at the Diet. We need to make efforts to have more people joining us in forming a third pole with reform-minded conservatives.”